This rocky world is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us and the astronomers believe that it may even be the closest possible abode for life beyond our own Sun.
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While the exoplanet orbits Earth’s nearest star, it is still four light-years away from our solar system, according to the ESO.
Scientists still aren’t sure whether planets like Proxima b are habitable, because of debates about whether they can sustain an atmosphere and liquid water.
However, even though Proxima b, is “only” 4.3 light years away, travelling there will present an enormous technological challenge.
The High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) was able to measure the tiny “wobble” in the star’s position caused by its interaction with the planet’s gravity.
We seem to be finding possibilities for that delicious life-allowing liquid on other planets a lot these days, don’t we?
Initial hints of a planet were observed in March 2000, but it took astronomers 15 years before enough evidence was available to justify announcing the discovery to the world.
What we know about Proxima b so far is that it’s roughly 1.3 times the size of Earth, and there’s a good chance it’s rocky.
Proxima b lies within the Goldilocks Zone or the habitable zone where water, and therefore life, might exist. The star pelts its planet with powerful ultraviolet rays and X-rays, which would mean that anything living there would find it much harder and so would have to become hardened against that radiation. Proxima Centauri is the star closest to our sun.
With one face permanently turned to Proxima Centauri, Per Ardua’s “substellar point”, directly beneath the star, is a focus of climate patterns. Despite this, “Proxima b” could have developed alien life. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf.
“The discovery of the potentially habitable planet around Proxima Cen is the culmination of 30 years of work”, study author Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science said in a statement.
People are excited because it is not only close to our solar system, but it may in fact be very similar to earth. The small wobble in Proxima Centauri’s spectrum of light came towards (blueshift) and moved away (redshift) from Earth at around 3 miles per hour every 11.2 days.
This new discovery is further proof that most stars in the galaxy probably harbor planets.
To determine whether organisms thrive on Proxima b, scientists will need to take a picture of the planet itself.
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“Right now, things like the Breakthrough Starshot effort are mostly based in the Bay Area”, Boyle said.
